Today I’m going to showcase something completely different. Yes you were right, that was a quote from the great Monty Python! I’m a great believer in that your creativity is only limited by your imagination, so with this as my mantra I got started. Firstly I needed an image to work with.
After selecting a few images I liked, I decided to use this photo of my sister taken when we were on holiday in Germany a few years ago. The trip took us along the Fairy Tale Route in Germany visiting some of the locations which inspired some of the fairy-tales written by the Legendary Brothers Grimm. This picture was taken at Sababurg Castle, located in the Reinhardswald Forest, next to the small town of Sababurg in Northern Hessen, Germany.
After Grimm’s Fairytales were published in the 19th century, many people started to wonder where the famous brothers had drew their inspiration for their tales, as it was well known that both brothers wrote their stories taking inspiration from their own lives and surroundings. At the time Sababurg Castle was believed to be the source of inspiration of Grimm’s Sleeping beauty as it was reminiscent of the castle in the tale, and when looking at it you really can imagine the story may have happened there. Plus, it was known that the Brothers spent some time in this area of Germany.
With all this in mind, I knew I wanted to create a fairy-tale inspired image. Not in the sugar-coated Disney style, but more in a Brother’s Grimm fashion. After sketching out a few ideas on paper I knew what I was going to do, so now I needed some more images to achieve this. Knowing that I did not have the images I needed, my search ventured out in the the world of the stock photography website. As you can imagine there are many to choose from, but at the moment I like to use www.pixabay.com. Here the images are free, all in public domain, and can be used for commercial purposes. Here is a slideshow of the images I selected to use in my project:
When you look at the finished image, sometimes it is not evident that some of these images have been used. This is because I did not use the whole image, only parts e.g. the doves wing, segments of the hair etc. Each section I used I adjusted the colour, brightness/contrast, and sometimes the exposure levels in order to blend it in with the original image. I also retouched my sisters skin and eyes, so that they would contrast strongly with the hair and background. Lets take a look at the finished project:
What do you think? I think its safe to say that there has been a major transformation! I wanted a truly atmospheric image which you could imagine illustrated within the pages of a fairy-tale book. I hope you agree with me that this is an example of the image as art; of how you can, with a some time and creativity, transform a holiday snap into a piece of art.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this post and if you have any images that you would like given the same treatment then please do not hesitate in contacting us. You can do so by sending us an email, with your image attached, to info@reclickphoto.co.uk. You can also visit our website at http://www.reclickphoto.co.uk for more information.
Thanks for reading!
Hugh @ ReClick Photo.
ReClick Photo 